View From The House - 25th September 2001

Reprinted From The Lichfield Mercury

The difficulty in writing for a weekly newspaper is that events can often overtake the story. Nothing could be more true than that of the current situation following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Events are changing by the day. I have received many letters from constituents on this subject: most support the United States though a couple have been hostile. But surely no-one can defend the murder of over 6,000 innocent civilians? If the terrorists had just wanted to make a dramatic point by hitting at the “heart of American capitalism”, they could have done so after office hours when most of down town New York, like the City of London, is empty. There would still have been many casualties, but they would have been in the hundreds not in the thousands. And what has happened in the U.S. could happen here too. It could not have escaped the thoughts of terrorists that if they wanted to wipe out all British government, the destruction of the Chamber of the House of Commons at 3pm on a Wednesday would see the death of the Prime Minister, virtually the whole Cabinet, the Leader of the Opposition, his Shadow Cabinet, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats and his team - as well as over 300 MPs including myself. So what do you do? In the short term, the Government put up a no-fly zone over central London. But that can’t last indefinitely. So the alternative is not to have Prime Minister’s Question Time and make other changes so as to accommodate terrorists. Or we fight back. And that is what we are now doing.

Of course, the way in which we fight back will be the measure of whether we ourselves are terrorists. Attacking the civilian population is wrong and no answer. However, terrorists deliberately hide amongst civilians for that very reason. On the West Bank, Islamic Jihad (the terror organisation sworn to the destruction of Israel) deliberately encourage children and women to throw stones and petrol bombs at Israeli forces. I have no doubt that Osama bin Laden and his troops are hiding in amongst the general population. I hope that a combination of intelligence sources will be able to pin-point his position though I have my doubts. (For years Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence arm and, no doubt, the CIA have had similar intentions regarding Saddam Hussein. But reality is very different from spy novels). But fight back we must or the threat of terrorism will increase over the years to come. I am inclined to quote a couple of lines from the fourth verse of the United States National Anthem (not known to most Americans, let alone British):- “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: ‘In God is our Trust’”. I don’t think we have much choice.

Meanwhile, at home in Britain we must get a grip on those we allow to enter our island. We must always be a safe haven for genuine refugees, but the present situation has become laughable if it weren’t so serious. Most of the people applying for asylum are economic migrants. The problem is that if we allow everyone in to the U.K. who is seeking a better life, it will destroy the very society they currently so much admire. Every political Party accepts that there has to be quotas. But what has become in my view so indefensible is the manner in which we deal with these applications for asylum. The individuals are housed in bed and breakfast and hotel accommodation while their applications are processed. They are allowed to come and go as they please. It is now thought that around half a million asylum seekers have absconded into Britain. I assume that they are all decent people just seeking a better life. But we don’t know. What if just a few of them have evil intent against Britain? Even now, after the events in New York and Washington, this appalling loophole has not been closed. And because the Government forced through the European Court of Human Rights legislation just before the election against stiff opposition, we may now not be able to provide secure accommodation for asylum seekers while their applications are being processed. Some day the Government will be called to account.